Zombie Hope
by AwesomeZombieSlayerGRL
Summary: [Recorder clicks and hisses] Uh… I guess this thing is on. Well, where to start? Name first? My name is Allison McPherson. Story? Well… Eight weeks ago, I was a perfectly normal kid. Eight weeks ago, there was no such thing as a zombie outbreak. We always say we're prepared for anything. We weren't prepared for this... Let me tell you: Hollywood wasn't far from the truth about us


Ch. 1: The Beginning

_[Recorder clicks and hisses]_

_ [Shuffling of clothing]_

Uh… I guess this thing is on. Well, where to start? Name first?

My name is Allison McPherson.

Story? Well…

Eight weeks ago, I was a perfectly normal kid. One who had just graduated from high school and was getting ready for college. Eight weeks ago, there was no such thing as a zombie outbreak. That it only happened in books and movies. I was bit the third week. Somehow, I can still reason. Think clearly. I don't know why. I don't know how. All I do know is that I got screwed. I can feel the hunger gnawing at the back of my mind. Picture this: your parents just left you alone at home but told you not to eat anything until dinner. Only that dinner doesn't come until very late at night. There's food all over your house and you are starving. But you can't eat. Your head hurts, your blood sugar level is low, and you are twitchy. As soon as dinner hits the table, you are so ravenous that manners are forgotten. You are starving; you could care less about what other people think.

That's what it's like for me. A small part of it, anyway. I can s_ense_ other people. Humans. Food. And it's scary. The zombie part of me is breaking down what is left of the human-me. I don't know how long it'll take until my humanity is gone, but please listen. All those zombie books you've probably read are always in the survivors' point of view, the people who have weapons and armor and all the necessities that are supposed to protect them from us. Now you'll hear it from us. One of the infected. And let me tell you: those Hollywood movies weren't far from the truth about us…

Eight weeks ago…..

It was summer. School was ending in a couple of days. For the seniors, school was already over; all that was left was graduation. For some, we still had finals to take. I was walking to school with an old friend of mine. We had been together since fifth grade when he had knocked down a couple of bullies who were picking on me. Ever since then, those bullies left me alone and we had been joined at the hip, staying in touch whenever possible.

We were about halfway to school when he spotted a nearby Starbucks. We hurried over to place our orders: one cookie crumble mocha frap for me and a double chocolate chip frap for him. I swear the guy could live off of chocolate. Total addict.

I gave him a look when we got our drinks and left. "What?" he asked, "I need the caffeine to just stay awake long enough to do that damned physics test." I laughed at him. We had both stayed up late the night before, texting each other back and forth, quizzing the other. He had physics while I had to deal with the dreaded trig monster. He reassured me, telling me I'd do fine. I was doubtful.

We continued walking until we heard the fanatical ravings of a man. We both groaned. These nutters swarmed the streets now more often than ever. They were always preaching that the end of the world was upon us. First (if could ever be a called a first), it was always about the Big One: the earthquake that was going to be strong enough to send California swimming. Then, it was when the year 2000 hit. Everyone thought the computers were going to go haywire; they didn't. Next thing on the list was Mayan calendar. Their calendar year ended in 2012, sometime in December. Judgment Day was coming.

My opinion was that, since something killed off the Mayans, they weren't able to finish the damned calendar. Now, the big deal was that the dead were rising up from the grave to walk the earth looking for more people to infect. And that was exactly what this man was shrieking about. Cane and I looked at each other: this guy stood between us and school. There were really no other alternative routes.

"Ah, come on!" I grumbled as we slowly trudged towards school and the raving lunatic. As we neared him, the man instantly zeroed in on us. He came running up with two pieces of cardboard with ropes around his neck displaying in big letters "Apocalypse Has Arrived. Are You Prepared?" Cane automatically stepped in front of me, ignoring my quiet protests.

"Good morning, sir," Cane said being forcibly polite.

"You need to get off the streets! Now! Stock up while you still can!" he shouted at us. "They're coming I tell you! It won't be long now!"

"Stock up against what?" Cane asked.

"The undead!" the man raved. He looked to be about forty and in need of a good shave… and a shower. I wrinkled my nose against the smell of human filth. His teeth flashed every time he yelled. Dentists would have a field day is this guy came into their offices.

Cane theatrically raised an eyebrow. "The undead? I don't see any around here," he replied.

"That's because the man's taking them away. Hiding them. Experimenting on them. But they'll get free. No animal likes to be caged for long. Once the government catches a whiff of infection outside somewhere, they'll be all over that place like flies on cow shit. Nobody's safe from them," the man continued nervously, eyed darting from side to side.

"Uh huh," Cane replied skeptically. Suddenly, the man seized Cane's wrist which took both of us by surprise. We had both dealt with lunatics like this but none had ever gotten this physical. The closest one was when one guy tried to spit on me when I discounted his Mayan calendar theory. He missed by a lot but I still ducked out of the way if only to be a little farther away from him.

Cane tugged on his arm but the man held on tight. "You think you little shits know better than me?" he demanded quietly, all trace of "raving lunatic" vanished. "You don't. I'm trying to save your goddamned pathetic asses while I still can. The government's doin' some crazy shit and it's going to break loose soon. Real soon," he continued.

Cane met the man's eyes calm and cold-like. "Let. Go. Of. Me," he whispered. Neither blinked for what seemed like a long time. Then, the ten minute alert bell rang from school, jolting the two out of their stare contest. The man released Cane's wrist immediately. I could tell Cane was resisting the urge to rub his wrist; no doubt thinking about the bruises that were already forming. Cane kept a wary eye on the man as we turned around to walk towards school.

I glanced back and saw fear light up on the man's face. "Don't!" he called out, "You go in there, you're screwed! Crowded places are incubators for the virus!"

I saw Cane lift up his arm and did something I never expected him to do: without turning around to face the man, Cane held up his arm and gave the man the bird which then led to the man throwing out a string of profanity that would put a sailor to shame.

Oh, how we should have listened to him.

During the test, I kept thinking back to what happened a couple hours ago. _Incubators, huh?_ I thought as I contemplated one question. _Great… Now Aliens is never gonna leave my mind! Damned face-huggers._

I finished with about a half hour to spare. I wanted to put my head down on the desk but didn't want to risk a desk imprint on my forehead. I leaned down carefully to rummage around in my bag. I made sure my actions weren't unnoticed; the teacher was already looking my way as I brought out a sketchbook and flipped to a blank page. She was probably just making sure I wasn't going to cheat. Typical protocol.

I doodled a little when I began to take notice of the empty desks that surrounded me. The normal class size was about thirty eight to forty kids. Today, however, there was probably twenty five and twenty seven kids. That's a lot of absent kids. It didn't seem normal.

_Okay, look. Just place this zombie business at the back of your head and focus on it later. After graduation. Breathe, just breathe._

A piece of paper landed on my desk. I put down my pencil and unfolded the note.

U ok?

I turned my head around slightly to see a boy with spiky, dirty blonde hair smiling at me. Jason Mallenrey. My boyfriend. He raised his eyebrow in an unspoken question and nodded his head at the note. "I'm fine," I mouthed.

"Miss McPherson, could you kindly turn around in your seat, please?" asked my math teacher. My face reddened as I quickly swiveled around in my seat. I could hear Jason snickering behind me. "Anything else you want to add, Mr. Mallenrey?" the teacher moved onto him. I smirked and continued doodling on my paper.

School let out a couple hours later. I trudged out to track. Even though the season ended, I still wanted to keep in shape for the summer especially if I planned on continuing it in college. Jason walked with me to the locker room, parted ways, and came out a few minutes later with us both dressed out.

We walked down to the track and set up the hurdles. We met about a year and a half ago in track of all places. I was already on my second year of running and he was starting to learn the ropes of hurdling.

The coach left him to me and a few other kids to help him out. Turns out, the guy was a natural. He needed a few tweaks here and there but was an all-out great hurdler. He won several races and became our fastest male hurdler on the team. I was a close second for the girls but one other chick ran half a second faster than me which ended up pissing me off.

We got most of the hurdles set up when I pulled up my hair. I was over at the waist and was pulling all the strays into place before I flipped up and wrapped my hair into a ponytail when Jason walked over to me.

"You mind telling what's been bugging you?" he asked. I flipped my hair back which made him lean out of the way and looked at him.

"Nothing really," I relied simply.

"That Cane didn't do anything, did he?"

"Uh, no. Cane has nothing to do with this," I answered, giving my boyfriend a look. I hated it whenever he brought Cane into stuff like this. Cane was a good guy, still is, but Jason seemed to get a tad bit jealous whenever Cane joined our group at lunch. Cane knew I was going out with Jason and planned to not get in the middle of it.

"Well… What's wrong?" he asked.

I sighed once before relaying the day's events. Jason pondered my story for a moment before commenting.

"Yeah, same crazies have been running up to me, too," he said at last.

"Do you believe any of it?"

"Hell, I don't know."

He shrugged and thus practice began.

I didn't get home till close to three. I showered, changed, and ate dinner. Both my parents were home which surprised me; normally it was just my mom and me, Dad comes home late. They were both sitting on the couch watching the news. A reporter was somewhere in the downtown area. I tuned in.

"There's still no word as to what's been causing the sickness," the reporter was saying. "All we know is that it's left ten people hospitalized and several more home sick. Take all the precautions you need to in order to protect yourself and your loved ones from this new strain of virus…" She continued to ramble on about typical, common sense steps you should to take to make sure you're safe: wash your hands, get regular checkups, stay away from those who are sick, cover your mouth when you cough, those types of things.

"What do you thinks causing this?" my dad asked.

Mom shrugged. "I have no idea. But whatever this, it's going to get worse before it gets a lot better. Remember, honey, I'm paid to shoot things. Not think," she replied. My mom was currently on leave from the military. She made it to Staff Sergeant and who knows how far she'll continue to go. I half stepped into the living room to sort of announce my presence. Mom turned around and nodded once while they both continued to be glued to the TV.

My parents remained on the couch up until the seven 'o' clock news. The TV stayed on all throughout dinner, so I basically gave up trying to talk to them and carried what was left of my potatoes and barbecued chicken up to my room where I quietly snuck onto my Xbox.

The volume stayed low while my game loaded. Halo: Reach for the win, baby! The main screen popped up soon and I scrolled down to where firefight was. I accessed the settings and made sure my Spartan was invulnerable, the guns on "bottomless pit", and the damage given three hundred percent. Now, this is what I'm talking about.

I played for a couple of hours, mindlessly mowing my enemies down with a pretty badass Spartan holding a pretty badass turret when I started to hear a loud thumping outside. At first, I thought it was just effects from the game but then the noise started growing louder until I had to look outside. I turned my lights down low and peeked out my window.

It took my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the low light but I was able to see two marine-attired men take a door buster and slam it into my neighbor's house. They immediately moved inside where muffled shots could be heard. Suddenly, a person ran out the door. They were barely clothed, save for a pair of tattered shorts hanging around their waist. I gasped as I took a good look at the…creature. That person no longer looked human.

As if it heard me, the thing turned around. Its hungry eyes immediately fixated on me and I felt my blood go cold. Just as it took one step towards my house, a muffled gunshot sounded and the creature fell down. I hardly moved. The marines quickly set up a small quarantine around the house, blocking off the doors and windows. Two marines stood over the creature.

"Something had its attention," said one.

"These things will react to anything that moves or any shiny crap that gets blown out. I mean, come on. Have you ever used a laser pointer with those things? Pretty damned funny," replied the other.

"I know, but this time it looked like it actually spotted a 'good meal'." I could practically hear the quotation marks in his voice.

"And?"

"And… that means it spotted something good to eat. Something like us."

"So, you're saying someone saw what we just did…?" They both looked up in unison and met my frightened gaze.

_Ah, crap…_

I heard the men swear quietly under their breath as one of them strode up to the gate that separated my house from the one next to it. He looked up at me and hissed, "You did not see any of this, you hear? Nothing." All I could do was nod and sink back down to my floor.

Outside I could hear the one marine retreat and the other say, "Oh, come on. That wasn't even really a threat. You could've at least waved your gun at her."

"Nah, I think I got my point across. She doesn't look stupid. She won't go tattling on to somebody."

And he was right. I wasn't going to speak… At least, not yet.

The next few days were a blur. Senior breakfast and grad rehearsal passed by real fast. I had dinner with my friends later that day. The events of what happened gone from my head. Graduation the next day was an amazing and sad event. But it ended with someone having their name mispronounced and the student yelling out, "It's Pal-Low-Me-Noh! How could you get that wrong?" Laughter erupted from the crowd of students and family. Even the announcer chuckled a little and apologized.

Diploma in hand, I headed over to my parents who were already taking pictures of me when I wasn't even ready. Everything was perfectly fine except when someone's aunt suddenly collapsed. Most everyone froze, not my mom. She had 911 on speed dial and Dad was already talking to someone by the time Mom reached the woman. Her face was turning blue as if she was choking on something.

"Hold her up!" Mom demanded. A few people were shocked back into existence and helped support the woman. The woman leaned over away from Mom and the other people who drew near her and retched. I averted my eyes, trying to not gag myself. But before I looked away, at the last second I spotted little red splotches in her… eh, vomit. Either this lady had too much chili or there was internal bleeding.

The woman wiped her mouth on her sleeve and made a face at the blood she saw there. A sudden shriek sounded out as a new graduate tried her very best to push through the crowd towards her aunt. The mother was close behind her daughter.

"Keep them back!" my mother ordered. Another woman grabbed the daughter's arm and tried to steer her away, which wasn't easy when you have a teenager hyped up on adrenaline trying to break out of your grasp. The mother was taken aside by a man who must've been a cousin or something for the close family resemblance.

"Goddammit! Let me go!" the mother yelled. My mom pulled the sick aunt to her feet and half dragged her away from the crowd where an ambulance was now arriving. The paramedics were already running out of the vehicle by the time Mom was halfway to them. The placed the woman on a stretcher and wheeled her away, with the daughter, mother, and other family members in tow. After a while, the crowd dispersed leaving behind a few stragglers.

I watched at the fleeing vehicle until it was long gone. All that remained was a tarnished high school graduation memory and a blood stain that painted the ground where the woman had lain.

Remembering that my mom was in contact with the sick woman, I turned towards and asked, "Did you get cut anywhere when you were with that woman?"

My mother looked at me funny. "No," she cautiously.

"Nothing? Is there any fluid from that woman that's on your clothes right now?"

"Honey, what're you getting at?"

I groaned. "Just humor me. Please?" I added and looked imploringly up at her.

"Fine," she grumbled and had Dad help her search her clothes then did the same thing for him. They were both as clean as far as I could tell.

"Why did you want us to do that?" Dad asked. I pinched the bridge of my nose. How could I word this so they wouldn't think I was crazy?

"You're going to think I'm crazy," I began. My parents immediately shouted out protests but I waved them off. "I think… I think there's a… zombie apocalypse going on," I finished, my voice sort of petering out at the end. I barely glanced up at my parents to gauge their reactions.

"What makes you think that there's a zombie apocalypse?" Mom asked first.

"Eh, call it a hunch?" I replied.

"You're not turning into one of those crazies, are you?" Dad asked.

"No, I'm not. As long as you're talking about the ones that yell at trash bins all day and not the ones who eat human flesh," I joked.

My parents gave me a weird look. "I-I don't know what to say to that," Mom finally said after a few seconds of awkward silence. The topic wasn't brought up again until that weekend. When all hell finally broke loose.

Saturday dawned bright and early. I had officially begun my summer vacation. I relished in sleeping in the past couple days. I was going to be getting ready for college in the not too distant future. I hadn't practiced in the past couple of days and I knew I would need too, or else take the chance of getting out of shape, which was not something I planned on doing.

I woke up and stretched, hearing the joints pop back into place. Then, I became aware of voices shouting downstairs. My parents.

_God, what're they bitching about now?_ I thought as I dragged myself out of bed and downstairs. I trudged down the stairs and was still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes when their words became clear.

"We have to leave now or it'll be too late!" Mom yelled.

"Why now? I don't see any of the other families getting up and leaving?" Dad replied.

"That's because they're either dead or kidnapped by the CDC. And I don't want that to happen to our family."

"I'm worried about the family welfare just as much as you are."

"If you are then start acting like it! We can't sit around and wait for help to come to us forever! And what about Alli? She's starting college soon! We can't just uproot her like that."

During all this, I sat quietly on the bottom steps waiting for this to simmer down before I deemed it safe to enter and grab breakfast.

"Look," Mom started out, "We can wait for two days. Three is the max I'm willing to compromise on. No ifs, ands, or buts." There was a small silence which made me assume that Dad nodded. Which made it safe for me to enter.

I waited a few extra seconds so that my parents wouldn't think I was eavesdropping on them. I got up and padded quietly over and grabbed a power bar from the cupboard. "What're you guys talking about?" I asked innocently.

Mom shook her head and Dad turned his attention to the computer. _Fine, I get it. You guys don't want to talk. Fine. Fine…_

I didn't go sit down on the couch or head back up to my room like I normally would do. I stood there, hand on one of my hips, and faced my parents. "You're going to have to me sooner or later and I'd rather have it now," I said.

Mom looked at me while Dad continued to scroll down a news page he was looking at. Needing no go-ahead from Dad, Mom chose her words carefully when she answered me. "We believe your… theory on that apocalypse thing was correct," she replied, "It seemed highly unlikely but reports keep coming. People are reportedly getting bit and running… rampant. Some are confirmed dead only to be up and walking around a couple days later. It's… messy."

I resisted smirking. Mom rarely ever admits that she was wrong about something. Too bad I didn't have a recorder then. "I take it the zombie apocalypse has been confirmed?" I asked.

"Not officially. Most people just think it's a hoax of some sort. They're already quarantining certain areas, including ours. They said it probably isn't airborne," Dad put in.

"'Probably' doesn't count it," Mom snapped.

"So it may or may be airborne. Don't take your anger out on me!"

"But we're planning on staying for a couple of days because…?" I prompted.

"Because your father insisted that we may need military help. Also, he said that it's better to wait a little while longer because of the crowds. Shelters are going to be packed and my guess is that the more crowded people are, the more likely the possibility of an infection will take place. There I'll have to agree with him," Mom stated.

I nodded once. "Go pack you things. Just… be ready," Mom said. I nodded again and turned to go back upstairs. So much for college.

I headed back up to my room, grabbed a duffel bag, and began to fill it up with the essentials. Two pairs of jeans, a couple of t-shirts, two long sleeved shirts, shorts, hiking boots, and a few other little necessities. After doing all that, I picked up my bag and tested its weight. It felt heavy and I wanted to travel light. Plus, we needed weapons and space to store said weapons and ammo. I highly doubted my parents would let me pack a loaded gun, but these were changing times. I did, however, pack a small can of unused pepper spray and a taser gun that my dad bought for me at a swap meet. Full loaded and ready to electrocute the crap out of anyone who pissed me off.

I planned on wearing some of the stuff, so I took out a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, my boots, and some socks. That lightened my load a bit. Now, all that was left was to wait. And wait and wait.

I got antsy after the first day passed. I paced in around in my room, doodled on random pieces of paper, and got on the Xbox. Even that couldn't hold my attention. At the evening of the second day, my parents really got at it. Sure they had been a little pissy. That was expected. But this was full on arguing. We had just finished dinner when Dad said something and Mom snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and walked outside where a military police guy stood a few feet from our house.

He looked up when I exited the house. "Things a little too tense in there" he asked.

"You could say that," I replied with a weary smile.

"Let me guess: one wants to stay but the other wants to leave."

"How did you guess?" I asked with feigned shock.

The man smirked. "Got lucky," he replied. I laughed a little and leaned up against a nearby wall and looked out across the little cul-de-sac I lived in. We were both quiet for a while.

"If they don't choose tonight, I'll make the choice for them," I muttered.

"'Scuse me?" the MP asked. I glanced up, not realizing that I had that out loud.

"Um, nothing," I replied. The MP gave me a weird look.

"Well, if you _were_ planning on leaving, there's a military outpost not too far from here. It shouldn't be too crowded right now, if you were planning on leaving," He said not so subtly and handed me a map with said outpost marked.

I took it and laughed. "Yeah, sure. Thanks." He nodded and I turned back into the house, right into another argument.

"We've waited," Mom was yelling, "Now we're leaving!"

"What? No!"Dad responded, "Don't you listen to the news? They're it's getting a lot worse!"

"All the more reason to leave." Mom stood near me without realizing I was there, her arms folded across her chest. "If it's getting a lot worse how we depend on help if help doesn't arrive?"

That stopped Dad. He fumbled around till he could find the right words. "You said that we could wait three days max, didn't you?" Mom glared at him, now regretting her words. Her jaw tightened even more.

"So, I say we wait until tomorrow evening and then go. I think the initial crowds will have dispersed by then," he continued. All the while this was happening, I quietly crept towards the stairs and sat down to think on how I could tell them I was leaving tonight. Basically, I was siding with Mom on wanting to leave now but that would be thrown out the window since both of them would not want me traveling alone in a zombie infested world.

"I'm leaving," I said quietly. They didn't hear me; too busy screaming at one another, I suppose. "I'm leaving!" I said a bit louder.

Dad stopped first and looked at me from across the hall. Mom stopped a few short seconds after he did.

"Repeat that," Dad demanded. My face reddened. _Oh, stupid! Stupid! Shouldn't have said that!_

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm leaving," I said. My parents were a little speechless.

"Like hell you're not!" Dad said.

"I'm already eighteen. I'm an adult. I have my license and everything. Even one of those gun permits!" I snapped. He looked back at Mom. About a week after my birthday, she had taken me down to get my driver's license and then to get a gun permit. I asked her why about the permit and she said that she just felt a "little safer". I gave her a look at her chosen words but decided not to push it.

We all stared at each other, me regretting every second spent here because of those two stupid words.

"You're not leaving," Mom said coldly.

I bit my lip to keep from yelling at them. They were only doing their job. But I was tired of waiting. "Fine," I snapped and trudged up to my room where my duffle bag lay the night before.

I couldn't stand sitting so I paced. And paced and paced. I was surprised a rut didn't form in my carpet. I glanced at the time. Only 8:30. I'd been walking around my room for over an hour without realizing it.

I grabbed my duffel bag and rearranged everything in it, taking out certain things that would make it a little lighter until I was satisfied. I even snuck a few cans of nonperishable food, some matches, and a few perishables. I grabbed an over the shoulder bag and put a couple of water bottles in it so I wouldn't be dehydrated. I placed all my stuff down on the floor and quietly snuck out of my room and into my parents'. Now this was extremely stupid.

I walked as carefully as I could towards their closet where the gun vault was. A fancy name for something small. I found the combination lock and quickly put in the code. It opened with a soft pop and revealed two standard issue shotguns, a rifle, and four guns. I grabbed a Glock and a few magazines making sure to leave behind some for my parents. My heart pounded painfully as I crept back into my room with my stolen loot.

I couldn't believe I was doing this. Running away for real and I could probably get killed doing this. A sudden knock at my door startled me out of my thoughts. _Oh shit!_

I zipped everything up, smoothed down my hair, and opened the door. It was my mom. Dad was standing just a few feet away from her.

"Hey, honey. Can we come in?" she asked.

"Um, sure," I replied uneasily. She came in and sat down on my bed while Dad hung out in the doorway. Mom's eyes flitted towards my duffel bag. She didn't miss a thing. I used to think she had x-ray vision when I was little.

"I take it you were planning on leaving tonight without telling us," she said. My shoulders slumped slightly and my face reddened from embarrassment. I remained silent.

I heard them both sigh. _God, I feel like such a damned disappointment_, I thought miserably. "That's understandable," she said. I looked up at her.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"We need to leave and we should've gone today-", at that, she shot a look over Dad who just shrugged. "—and so we're going to be leaving tomorrow morning. Preferably sometime in the early morning," she continued.

I nodded once and Dad was about to speak when we heard a god-awful sound outside. We all froze as shrieks sounded out all over the neighborhood.

"Oh, shit," I muttered. It was the zombies and they wanted food.


End file.
